"When you're receiving taxpayer dollars, it's not money that you've have earned. It's money that other people have earned and is redistributed to you. Strings come along with that," Butt said in a statement on her website."At the end of the day, if you're on public assistance, you shouldn't be using taxpayer dollars to consume junk food that leads to additional health problems and more taxpayer assistance to address those problems."

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The controversial measure would include steep fines for those who violate the law. First-time offenders would have to pay $1,000 and those with three or more offenses in five years would be fined $5,000.

Butt compares consuming these kinds of foods to other harmful vices.

"We don't allow people to buy alcohol and cigarettes with welfare dollars, why should we allow people to buy junk food that leads to just as many health problems as the aforementioned?"

Linda Williams, the president and CEO of the RISE Foundation in Memphis, told the Tennessean this sort of behavior shouldn't be regulated at the government level. She believes the bigger problem relates to a lack of information made available to families.

"You can pass laws all day long that you want, but until people understand that they shouldn't eat three pints of ice cream a day (things won't change)," he told that outlet. "I don't think Capitol Hill telling people what they can eat is the right thing."